Neuromarketing

One of the trends developing as a result of EEG technology becoming more affordable is neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is a B2B industry operating in a new field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive and affective response to marketing stimuli. An example of a neuromaketing project is a study done by Professor Gregory Berns, who studied the brainwaves of a group of 27 teenagers while they listened to 120 unknown songs. His results showed that the songs that triggered the brains reward centers ended up doing better in the charts when they were released. 

Key to the success of this kind of predictive analysis is correlating the brain’s response to stimuli, namely images, music and videos. At time of writing, there are around 31 neuromarketing agencies in the US using this technology for market research purposes. The bulk of the work in this area is project-based and consultative in nature, done for major marketers such as P&G, Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson, Google and Mars during the pre-launch phase of their new product or service.

Here at IE Business School we decided to do our own neuromarketing. Take a look at some photos from our "mind reading focus group" below: 

Our study was for the Pantene hair care brand in Spain. We monitoring the subconscious thoughts of six women - three users of the brand and three non-users of the brand - while watching Pantenes latest TV ad (which you can view here).

We found that brand users pay a lot of attention to the hair of the model – they are comparing her hair with theirs and get frustrated because “it’s not as nice”. However, this frustration is overcome, as brand users are relaxed by the end frame and slogan – hair so healthy it shines. It is familiar, makes them feel good and they know the product already, so they don’t need to worry about what the bottle looks like. 

Conversely, non-users were relaxed by the frames featuring beautiful hair and paid attention to the end frame of the advertisement. This was part of a yearning for the spa-like environment, which then lead to heightened levels of attention at the end of the ad as they assessed the look of the actual product. 

Notably, all users paid attention to the animation of the vitamin capsules repairing the hair. They tended to take this message away, that the shampoo was full of vitamins to help make your hair soft. However, none could remember the variant of the brand – they could simply remember the brand itself. When asked if they would look for the variant in store, all said no. The ones who didn’t use it would not switch and the ones that did use Pantene did not feel the need to change their current formula. 

Both also loved the spa scenes. They felt relaxed and somewhat pampered by the luscious environment, with the featured waterfall being the most prominent images the women connected with. The very beginning of the ad, however, was a big fail. No one connected with the models pain of “crispy hair”. They could not recall this part of the ad, nor did these images register with them subconsciously. 

Hence, you can see how this type of research might become very beneficial for marketers and business strategy in the future!